KEY LARGO — Underwater turbulence generated by Hurricane Dennis has uprighted
the
510-foot artificial reef known as the Spiegel Grove.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is working on an emergency closure
of the site while it assesses the ship's stability and its general condition.
Workers will be removing the mooring buoys temporarily, sanctuary spokeswoman
Cheva Heck said.

The shifted position of the
510-foot ship
comes as a surprise because the area
experienced minimal tropical-storm force winds during the passage of Hurricane
Dennis on Saturday.

On Monday, a boat from Key Largo dive shop Ocean Divers visited the former Navy
ship, which was
scuttled in 130 feet of water May 17, 2002.
When divers arrived
at the site six miles offshore, they saw that several mooring balls were
missing.

The dive boat tied off on one of the three remaining moorings and instructors
Bob Snyder and Steve Schalk descended the mooring lines.

At 90 feet, Schalk said he saw nothing and came to the surface. Snyder, who
descended to the ship's bow, was stunned by what he saw.

"I was in shock," he said Monday. "I had to ask myself, 'Am I narcked
[suffering from nitrogen narcosis]?' There was only 10-foot visibility, so I
dropped down 10 feet and I could see both sides of the ship. It was sitting
upright."

In 2002, the Spiegel Grove sank prematurely, and upside-down, with its bow
jutting 50 feet in the air while it was being prepared for scuttling.
Contractors on the project were hired by the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce,
which spearheaded the effort. Salvers later turned the
6,880-ton ship
on its
side, where it remained, becoming a popular dive attraction and drawing many
tourists from the heavily dived coral reef tract.

Original plans called for the ship to be sunk upright, a task ultimately
performed three years later by Mother Nature.

The fact that a
large ship rolled 90 degrees as the result of a hurricane that
never came close to Key Largo has Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
officials concerned
.

"It's good in that it is what the supporters of the project wanted," said
sanctuary Superintendent Billy Causey. "It's bad in that it is not supposed to
move. It makes me worried about the Vandenberg project."

Artificial Reefs of the Keys wants to scuttle the 520-foot USS Gen. Hoyt S.
Vandenberg in 140 feet of water seven miles off Key West. The wreck would be
accessible by both advanced and intermediate divers and snorkelers, because
sections of the top of the boat would be 40 feet below the surface of the
ocean. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration already has issued a
permit for the project.

The organizers of the Vandenberg project have been working with the world's top
artificial reef experts on the project. The experts collectively have sunk 18
ships, more than any other [group] in the world, project organizer Capt. Joe
Weatherby said.

The Vandenberg can withstand a 100-year storm and is being weighted down with
an extra six million pounds of ballast and locked in place with extra anchors,
Weatherby said. The Vandenberg is twice as heavy as the Spiel Grove.

"It's our position that in a hurricane, the Vandenberg is the safest place and
the least likely to move," Weatherby said.

"We're very concerned that the ship moved in a relatively minor storm," Heck
said of the Spiegel Grove.

Heck pointed out that the Key Largo chamber and Monroe County, which helped
fund the project, would be responsible for any damage the ship may have caused
to the living coral reef.

Late Monday afternoon, Hank Becker, who leads the Upper Keys mooring team for
the sanctuary, was heading back out to the ship for another look.

Heck said a stability analysis would be conducted before the ship would again
be open as a dive site.

http://keysnews.com/283747084380716.bsp.htm

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

I just got a call from the FKNMS telling me the SPIEGEL GROVE is now upright!
There were reports today that the mooring buoys were all gone, so when FKNMS
divers dived the wreck to determine where the moorings were damaged, they
observed the wreck sitting bolt upright on the bottom. The wreck is offlimits
to diving while new moorings are put in place.

She is upright, and is expected to wallow out the sand under her keel. But if
she was righted by less than 15-foot seas, it is unclear how stable the wreck
actually is. While she undoubtedly is safe to dive, who knows what the next
major storm event will do to the wreck.

The other side effect of this will likely be no new artificial reefs will be
allowed in FKNMS due to the fact that this wreck was significantly moved by a
very minor storm. There is no telling what would have happened if the Upper

Keys took a direct hit.
Expect a front page report in the Miami Herald and Key West Citizen
tomorrow....
Michael C. Barnette
Shipwrecks of the Sunshine State: Florida's Submerged History
http://uwex.us/shipwreckbook.htm
Association of Underwater Explorers
http://uwex.us/

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

KEY LARGO, Fla. - In the wake of Hurricane Dennis, a man-made mistake with the
largest intentionally sunk ship in the world was found Monday to have been put
right.

The former USS Spiegel Grove, now serving as artificial reef on the bottom in
130 feet of water off Key Largo,
flipped upright as the core of the storm
passed well over 200 miles to the west.

It's a position project organizers wanted since the retired
510-foot Landing
Ship Dock
prematurely sank and rolled over May 17, 2002, leaving its
upside-down bow protruding from the water.

Three weeks later, a salvage team managed to fully sink the vessel, but on its
right side instead of its keel. Three years later, the Spiegel Grove is the
most popular artificial wreck in the Florida Keys, home at least 166 different
fish species, said Lad Akins of the Reef Environmental Education Foundation.

"I'm flabbergasted," Rob Bleser, volunteer project director, said Monday
afternoon after a dive on the newly oriented Spiegel Grove. "Nature took its
course and put it where it belongs."

"This will mean a whole new dive for those that have dove it before," Bleser
said.
Its highest point is now 60 feet down
.

Words of delight about the Spiegel Grove moved quickly through the Florida
Keys' sport dive industry, but at least one federal official was not happy.

"It's bad news from my perspective as a resource manager that it moved," said
Billy Causey, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent. "We
have to figure out why."

Matt Strahan, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service Office in
Key West, said
waves at the wreck were as high as 20 feet Friday afternoon,
when Dennis was southeast of Cuba
.

"Waves that high in close proximity to the reef can produce unusually strong
currents with tremendous force," Strahan said.

The Spiegel Grove reef is about six miles off Key Largo. Bleser says there have
been about 75,000 sport dives on the wreck since it opened.

The ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, was
retired by the Navy in 1989.